Little did I know, all those years ago during teenage, when I inherited a Brownie Box Camera, that imaging technology, both still and motion, would surge ahead so rapidly. Indeed, way beyond imagining, into an incredible stratospheric level of sophistication.

My reality back in those early days was rolls of celluloid film. Chance taking, with primitive camera settings, and long waits for chemist based processing, was typically the order of the day. Photographic results of course, did not always meet expectation.

Like many others at that time, being enthusiastic about photography inevitably drew both myself and a friend, towards setting up our own home based photo processing darkroom. Together with trademark red bulb, to protect against film exposure, and basins of liquid chemicals for processing i.e. developer and fixer etc., we were on our way. Of course no self-respecting darkroom of that era, could be found without the obligatory enlarger, that big clunky piece of equipment which facilitated projection of negative images, on to a variety of large photographic papers, and so, we did enlarger as well.

My enjoyment of photography continued through several iterations of cameras, and ultimately migrated from film, into the amazing realm of digital.

The ultimate marriage of stills and moving image capture, into single, very light, small portable devices, was indeed hugely transformative. The first analogue, tape based video camera which I bought during the 1980s, a Canon product, cost me over €800; a not inconsiderable sum of money, at that time. It was big. It was heavy and it was somewhat awkward, to use.

Today, for less than a couple of hundred euros, one can acquire very sophisticated, small and light imaging devices, which capture both stills and moving images seamlessly, with the latter having incredible HD quality.

So, along with digital came volume. Take as many stills and films as you like, and simply delete what has not turned out to expectation. Such volume, as a prospective business opportunity, was not lost on the sharpies. Various internet based applications began to appear, offering to store all of your stills, and all of your videos, for free; an offer which few could resist. Then hey! Voila! The likes of YouTube is born.

In my humble opinion the golden age of YouTube was before it became subsumed into internet Behemoth Google. However, it is still an amazing facility, with useful, if somewhat clunky and limited capacity, for video editing. I joined the throngs and set up a YouTube channel in 2011, and have published a number of minor videos there since.

In recent times, I have been keen to make my videos look a little more sophisticated, and indeed to make the task of editing them, both easier and quicker.

Over a period of time I considered a number of alternative editing packages and typically, being slow in making decisions in such matters, shelved the lot for a while. However, I recently came upon an application named: Filmora (with versions available for Windows and Mac) and decided to investigate more.

I was pleasantly surprised with what I discovered. Filmora turned out to be quite a sophisticated “starter level” video editing package. It incorporated much of what I would have anticipated should be, in a video editing package, and indeed quite a bit more.

I played around with the downloaded trial version for a while, and was amazed at how quickly, I seemed to be ascending the learning curve.

The Filmora interface is clear, well-arranged and its icons are intuitive. In short, I found it to be a neat, effective and pretty sophisticated piece of kit. I was hooked and decided to purchase a single user licence for €67.15 (Vat included). It was a reasonable enough price, I thought, given the sophistication of the software.

My next challenge, given my novice state of knowledge of Filmora, was to see if I could produce some sort of half decent results, in the making of a couple of videos edited together using the package.

I suppose I could not have chosen two more diverse subjects, for trial videos as: 1/ The 22nd May 2017 Manchester Bombings and 2/ Aspects of Dublin’s Phoenix Park but there you have it, those were my choices.

For those who may wonder what is involved in producing videos, and not just via Filmora, well, the answer is: a lot of work, and a generous helpings of patience.

So, I will immediately take off my hat to those thousands of intrepid YouTube Channel Alternative Media types, many of whom, on a very regular basis, produce some truly amazing videos with such useful content, both from an educational, and entertainment stand point. May your efforts be long-lived, and may you grow and prosper.

While taking account of the fact that I am still on a learning curve with Filmora, I will summarise for you now, the kind of time and content effort, which was involved, in producing the two videos referred to above.

Firstly, in preparation for each project, one may assemble more artefacts that one ultimately decides to use. So, with that in mind, here goes:

The Manchester Bombing Film

This project was completed during a number of sessions over three days i.e. 4th through 6th June 2017. I assembled a library of 25 images, authored 6 scripts, and recorded and edited 16 audio files, in facilitation. The final cut film duration, turned out to be: 41 minutes.

Aspects of Dublin’s Phoenix Park Film

This project was completed during a number of sessions also over three days i.e. 7th through 9th June 2017. I assembled a library of 11 images, authored 14 scripts, recorded and edited 28 audio files, took 1 video sequence and assembled 3 music file options, in facilitation. The final cut film duration, turned out to be: 18 minutes.

The above might seem a lot of work, especially given no commercial purpose or expectation. However, for me it was a labour of love, and part of my small contribution, to today’s voluntary sharing economy.

Given that none of my videos on YouTube have ever been monetised, not by me anyway, you might make the valid point that while I am contributing voluntarily to a sharing economy, YouTube aka Google, my hosting site, are enjoying profits based upon what I produce voluntarily. Well yes, that’s true, but the quid-pro-quo, for the moment anyway is, that I have a ready means of storing my videos and convenient links with which I can circulate my video work.

I am however at present, looking into a “peer to peer” sharing option i.e. a site currently in development called BitChute, as an alternative hosting site to the Behemoth Google/YouTube. However, BitChute has a way to go yet, before being fully operational. So, at the moment, it’s a game of patience.

For readers who may be interested in checking out Filmora as a video editor, here is a link to their site –